East Liverpool man faces multiple child sex charges

September 28, 2012

LISBON - An East Liverpool man, who reportedly posed for several years as a woman while the alleged crimes were being convicted, was indicted by the Columbiana County Common Pleas Court grand jury this week on several counts of sexual related charges involving children.

Aaron L. LaGrand, also known as Erin LaGrand, 32, is charged with importuning, two counts of rape, two counts of rape with an age specification and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

LaGrand is accused of sexual conduct with four different children between 2004 and August 2012. One of the children was less than 10 years old during the period between 2004 and 2006 when some of the crimes were alleged to have happened.

Assistant Prosecutor Timothy McNicol said because of the age of the children, LaGrand faces up to life in prison if convicted on the two rape offenses with an age specification.

LaGrand reportedly had been posing as a woman throughout the time the crimes were believed to be happening.

"He gained access to his victims by representing to them and others that he was a woman," McNicol said.

LaGrand was initially bound over from East Liverpool Municipal Court on Aug. 23 on one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. There bond was set at $100,000 cash or surety. He remains in the county jail on that bond, according to McNicol.

McNicol noted when initially arrested, LaGrand continued to use the female name Erin on his jail paperwork.